ActiveWin Review
6.8/10A Manchester performance agency that started inside Betfred in 2013 and still counts the operator as its lead client 13 years on, selling paid search and paid social first, with SEO, affiliate management, and consultancy alongside them, plus ActiveWins, an owned affiliate program platform, though the book is UK-only, the footprint is one office, and nothing on pricing or the platform's economics is published.
Our read
- Betfred has been the lead client for 13 years, since the agency started life as that operator's in-house marketing division.
- GVC brought ActiveWin onto its Foxy brands from 2015 through 2017, and ActiveWin founders were behind the digital marketing division Nektan launched in 2019.
- An orderly operation: Warren Jacobs has led the brand since 2013 and is now Chairman, and the MD role passed internally to Joshua Gamble, a director of the company since 2020.
- One Manchester office, a UK-only book, regional awards from 2019 and 2020, and no conference presence.
- The gaming focus is diluted by design: the client book spreads across esports, sports, finance, travel, health, and property.
- Pricing is quote-only across the whole offer, agency retainers and the ActiveWins platform alike, so budgeting starts blind.
- Two names to keep straight: the brand trades as ActiveWin Media while contracts land with ActiveWin Marketing Limited.
Operators and gambling-adjacent brands working the UK that want one Manchester shop running paid media, SEO, and a managed affiliate program.
Teams that need a current PR or content-led practice, published pricing, or multi-market coverage beyond the UK.
Markets & licensing
ActiveWin works from a single Manchester office at Colony Jactin House. The gambling clients are UK-regulated operators, Betfred brands since 2013 and GVC's Foxy Bingo and Foxy Casino from 2015 through 2017, and every non-gaming client is a UK company as well.
The client record is UK-facing, with no US client work, no US office, and no state-facing footprint. A US-market operator would be buying UK channel expertise applied remotely, which is not what this agency sells.
The UK is the whole story. A UK-licensed operator is the client ActiveWin was built around.
- Northern Digital AwardsUnited Kingdom
- Digital Marketing Company of the Year, won in 2019 and again in 2020
Licensing tier: ISO 9001 (British Assessment Bureau) and Microsoft partner status.
Clients, partners & engagement
Agencies are judged on the accounts they already run and the platforms and registries they work through. The delivery model shows how the team is staffed day to day.
Engagements run as channel retainers out of one Manchester office, with ActiveWins giving the agency an owned platform for affiliate program management. The client book is UK-centric.
Each engagement is scoped from a brief before it starts.
Services & platform
A performance stack: PPC across Google and Bing, paid social, SEO, affiliate marketing, and marketing consultancy, backed by ActiveWins, the agency's own affiliate program platform.
Paid Media
The lead products: Google Ads and Bing Ads management, PPC consultancy as its own line, and paid social campaign management, all delivered from one Manchester office.
- Google Ads and Bing Ads management with feed management and Shopify PPC as sub-services
- PPC consultancy sold as a distinct line for teams that keep buying media in-house
- Paid social campaign management alongside the search products
- A Paid Media Manager and a Paid Media Executive on staff
- Microsoft partner
SEO
SEO as a productized line plus marketing consultancy for strategy work outside a channel retainer.
- SEO sold as a product line of its own
- Marketing consultancy for strategy engagements without a channel retainer
- A UK-centric client record across the case studies
ActiveWins
ActiveWin's in-house affiliate program platform, running since 2013 and grown to 30,000+ affiliate partners, with program management sold on performance economics.
- Owned affiliate program platform, built in 2013 to consolidate the Betfred, Totepool, and Bucky Bingo programs
- 30,000+ affiliate partners
- Program management with performance economics
- An Affiliate Director on staff
The history
Longevity in this industry usually comes with a change of owner somewhere in it.
Warren Jacobs founded ActiveWin in 2013 as Betfred's digital marketing division, a team of three that grew past 100 people by 2020, and built it into a Manchester performance house. The affiliate side became a product early: ActiveWins, the agency's own platform, consolidated the Betfred, Totepool, and Bucky Bingo programs in 2013 and carried 30,000+ affiliate partners. ActiveWin Marketing Limited has run the business since 2020.
Brands & clients on the platform
Corporate
Leadership
Milestones
- 2013
Warren Jacobs founds ActiveWin as Betfred's digital marketing division, and the operator's affiliate program launches with it in May 2013.
- 2015
GVC brings in ActiveWin to grow the Foxy-branded sites, work that runs through 2017.
- 2018
Betfred founder Fred Done and Warren Jacobs jointly back the ad platform Adzooma, an investment alongside the client relationship rather than agency work.
- 2019
Northern Digital Awards names ActiveWin Digital Marketing Company of the Year, a win repeated in 2020, and Nektan launches a digital marketing division with ActiveWin founders.
- 2020
ActiveWin Marketing Limited incorporates in December 2020 and becomes the operating company for the brand.
- 2026
Warren Jacobs becomes Chairman and Joshua Gamble Managing Director, an internal move, with Jacobs staying on as a director.
Where they're pushing next
- The diversified non-gaming book, esports through property, which keeps widening
- Affiliate program management through the owned ActiveWins platform
- UK performance channels, PPC and paid social, the current lead products
Awards & recognition
Longevity and ownership
Switching vendors is expensive, which makes the company's staying power part of the purchase. What the contract says about your data decides how expensive an exit gets.
ActiveWin vs alternatives
Most buyers in this market shortlist three or four vendors long before they take a single sales call.
| Attribute | ActiveWin | Square in the Air | GameOn | Red Knot Communications |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| Founded | 2013 | 2006 | 2007 | 2019 |
| Team | — | 50+ | 20+ | — |
| Pricing | On request | On request | On request | On request |
| Market posture | Licensed only | Licensed only | Licensed only | Licensed only |
| Minimum engagement | — | — | — | On request |
Pricing & terms
ActiveWin quotes pricing per project. Here's how the model and the terms are structured.
The engagement
Channel engagements are scoped and priced one proposal at a time. ActiveWins, the agency's own affiliate platform, runs program management on performance terms set deal by deal.
Path to launch
- 1Start with a brief
- 2Pick the service line, priced as its own proposal.
- 3Route affiliate program work through ActiveWins if it fits
- 4Kick off on a retainer with the delivery leads in place, an Account Director, a Paid Media Manager, and an Affiliate Director
- 5Set the reporting cadence in the retainer itself.
Support & account management
You can't demo service before you sign, so what a vendor puts in writing is the only floor you can hold it to.